MAD MEN

Which Mad Men Character Has Changed the Most, According to Matthew Weiner?

Over the course of six seasons, we’ve watched Mad Men’s characters clumsily evolve, one booze-soaked milestone or errant affair at a time, to their present-season iterations. Over that time, though—the same time period it took to shapeshift Sally from an impressionable five-year-old to a cigarette-smoking teenage cynic hardened by her parents’ indiscretions—just which Mad Men character has transformed the most? Series creator Matthew Weiner gives us his answer in a new interview.

While speaking to Vulture, Weiner says, “Honestly, a lot of the show plays on the tension on whether people can change or not, and certainly Pete Campbell has changed the most to me, even more than Peggy, at his core, over the life of the show.”

When asked to explain why he thinks Pete has changed more than other characters like Don or Peggy, Weiner points to specific plot points in Season 6 that show his evolution.

“I think that when he finds out that Bob [Benson] has made a pass at
him, Pete’s decision to not engage in a battle with Bob Benson was a
deep sign of growth as a human being. It was learning. When Duck says,
“I’ve never seen this before,” and Pete says, “I have,” you’re like,
“What is he gonna do?” He’s actually going to just surrender, and I
thought that was a lot of growth. When he gets to the end of the
season, of course Bob Benson’s friend Manolo is responsible for Pete’s
mother’s death — and I think that’s all he could stand — but his
devotion to his mother and how little he got back, and his
relationship with his brother, that whole thing, his whole family life
is a big part of why he is the way he is. It was interesting to see
him deal with that, right down to he and his brother deciding not to
pursue their mother’s killer because it was a lot of money and they,
on some level, didn’t miss her.

While he’s on the Pete Campbell subject, the Mad Men mastermind also discusses why it is just so much fun to torture the character played by Vincent Kartheiser. “Seeing [Pete] outraged, I knew that there was entertainment in that. And right away, putting him in positions where he could be outraged or wronged in some way, you know that you were gonna get a full, almost Jack Lemmon–like frustration and anger that was very funny.”

In tribute, a look back at some of Pete’s most poignant milestones and humiliations: